The Prince And The Pauper Quotes Analysis

“A boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him.” That is just one of the quotes from Mark Twain’s meticulously crafted book, The Prince and the Pauper. But the real focus is, “What is the theme?” Grass isn’t always greener on the other side. In other words, the other person’s position isn’t always better than your position. Plain and simple. But why? Where’s the support? There are many quotes from the beginning, middle and end, that support the theme, but there only needs to be a few. In the beginning of the book, we start to see the theme appear in two quotes.
“Oh, prithee say no more; ‘tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in raiment like to thine and strip my feet, and revel in the mud once,
“Death-- and a violent death-- for these poor unfortunates! The thought wrung Tom’s heartstrings.” In this quote, Tom is horrified by the fact that a a women, a man, and a young girl are going to be executed. It may have been because of his humble upbringing as a pauper, but either way, this quote shows that as king, it’s not all just living the easy life. Tom has to make difficult decisions, some of them emotional, and he can’t just laze around all day. He’s stuck in the position of an important job that’s difficult.
“He felt that if he had seen the worst of dining in public, it was an ordeal which he would be glad to endure several times a day if by that means he could but buy himself free from some of the more formidable requirements of his royal office.” In this passage, Tom feels like if dining in public was only this bad, he would be fine going through several times, to avoid the responsibilities of being king. Once again, being King isn’t all easy. Tom has to do difficult things in his job as king, and in this part of the book, it shows that he doesn’t want to do them. He would be fine dining every day if it would allow him to get away from all the duties of being a
He’s still trying to be king. But as he sees his mother so brokenhearted, it seems to him that he’s not a real king anymore. This passage shows that in order to be king, you have to make sacrifices, even if they are hard. You don’t just have all the time in the world to be lazy. And this is when Tom realizes that if he has to pretend not know his mother or sisters to be king, he doesn’t want to be king at all.

In conclusion, the theme of The Prince and the Pauper is that grass is not always greener on the other side. In simpler words, one person’s position isn’t always better than your position. Edward doesn’t expect that he’d be punished for his choices, and Tom doesn’t expect that he’d have so much work, and be so restricted. They overlook the bad things of both positions. As Cherry from The Outsiders would say, “It’s rough all